- Find Information
- Research Guides
- United States Congressional
United States Congressional
Find U.S. Congressional documents in free official government websites and commercial databases
Reference Librarian
Other UTSA Government Guides
Government Documents
The mission of the Government Documents Unit is to serve the government information needs of the UTSA community and citizens of the 20th U.S. Congressional District by collecting and organizing government information and providing free public access, instruction, and quality reference assistance in the use of these materials.
Acknowledgment
This guide was originally created by Rita Wilson (1948-2024), UTSA Government Documents librarian for 27 years and liaison for Anthropology, Spanish and Modern Languages, Geography, Criminology, and Paralegal Studies.
Databases for Congressional Information
The key databases to locate U.S. Congressional publications are:
- ProQuest Congressional
- Congress.gov (formerly THOMAS)
- govinfo (replaced FDsys)
- MetaLib
- Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (Government Publishing Office)
- LLMC Digital
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowØ Bill tracking and full text of bills
Ø Federal regulations & Federal Register
Ø Member affiliations, demographic, financial, and voting records
Ø Committee Prints (1830-present)
Ø Hearings (1824-present)
Ø House & Senate Documents and Reports (1817-present)
Ø Legislative Histories (1969-present)
Ø Serial Set & Serial Set Maps (1789-present)
Ø Congressional Record (Daily and Permanent Bound Versions) (1789-present)
Ø Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-present)
Ø Executive Orders & Presidential Proclamations (1789-current)
- Govinfo,gov> From U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO)
> Free electronic access to a wealth of Federal publications including regulations, laws, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, administrative decisions, Core Documents of U.S. Democracy, and judicial, legislative, and executive documents.
> Dates of coverage vary. Updated continuously. Replaced FDsys.
- Congress.gov This link opens in a new windowOfficial website for U.S. federal legislative information. Includes bills and resolutions, committee reports, the Congressional Record, Presidential nominations, treaties, summary and status of legislation, congressional member profiles, roll call votes, appropriations, maps, and other related documents. Replaces THOMAS.gov.
- MetaLib GPO This link opens in a new windowFind U.S. government reports, articles, data and citations by simultaneously searching across multiple subject based databases, catalogs, and digital repositories. Search all or create your own sets of searchable databases from such sources as EPA, ERIC, GAO, Data.gov, govinfo, NCJRS, National Archives and Library of Congress.
- Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)The finding tool for federal publications with descriptive information for historical and current publications as well as direct links to the full document, when available online.
- LLMC Digital This link opens in a new windowExtensive collection of historical legislative, executive, and judicial publications on the federal, state, and territorial levels as well as foreign legal materials. All documents are available full text in PDF. Date range: 14th-21st centuries. Title List
- USA.gov This link opens in a new windowUSA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal to all federal, state, and local government web resources and services, as well as those of cross-government agencies and tribal governments. Provides access to over 100,000 government websites. Search the official Spanish language web portal of the U.S. Government at USAGov en español . For similar resources, see also govinfo and GPO Monthly Catalog.
- Hein Online: Gun Regulation and Legislation in America This link opens in a new windowThis timely database brings together essential periodicals, compiled legislative histories, CRS reports, Congressional hearings, United States Supreme Court briefs, monographs, and other related materials on the difficult and controversial topic of regulating firearms in the United States. It also includes an extensive bibliography and a balanced selection of external resources to further research this subject.
- Military and Government Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowOffers current news pertaining to all branches of the military, including a thorough collection of military titles, trade publications, and newsweeklies. Provides cover-to-cover full text of 300 periodicals. Also includes the full text of 245 pamphlets and indexes/abstracts 400 magazines.
Continental Congress Papers
The Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies, and later the United States, from 1774 to 1789.
The Continental Congress was the governing body by which the American colonial governments coordinated their resistance to British rule during the first two years of the American Revolution.
- Journals of Continental Congress and Constitutional ConventionLibrary of Congress American Memory Project
The First Continental Congress met from September 5 to October 26, 1774. The Second Continental Congress ran from May 10, 1775, to March 2, 1789. The Journals of the Continental Congress are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as kept by the office of its secretary, Charles Thomson. The Journals were printed contemporaneously in different editions and in several subsequent reprint editions. None of these editions, however, includes the "Secret Journals," confidential sections of the records, which were not published until 1821. - Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (Bibliography)HathiTtust
"The records reproduced in the microfilm publication are from Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention record group 360 in the National Archives - Bell Ringer: First Continental CongressA video tour of the building that served as the meeting place of the First Continental Congress in 1774.
Search Engines: USA.gov and Census Survey Explorer
Official Government search engine to Federal & State government information and services.
- Census Survey Explorer NEW!Discover which of the 130+ Census surveys covers the data, geography, demographic characteristics, date coverage and frequency of release you want. Search this user-friendly tool by broad topics listed under the Topics & Subtopics tab. View an 8-minute instructional Data Gem to learn more.